Jacob Maentel (1778-?)

Found in Jonestown. Pennsylvania
Ed and Mildred Bohne, Newmanstown, Pennsylvania, 1975

“American Folk Painters of Three Centuries," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1980
"Young America: A Folk Art History," American Folk Art Museum at IBM Gallery of Science and Art, New York, 1986
"Simplicity, a Grace: Jacob Maentel in Indiana," Evansville Museum of Art and Science, Evansville, IN, 1989/90
"Five-Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces," American Folk Art Museum, 1990
"Blue," New York, American Folk Art Museum, October 20, 2004-March 6, 2005
"Folk Art Revealed," New York, American Folk Art Museum, November 16, 2004-August 23, 2009

Lipman, Jean, and Tom Armstrong. eds.  American Folk Painters of Three Centuries. New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with Whitney Museum of American Art, 1980, p. 122
Lipman, Jean, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Robert Bishop. Young America: A Folk Art History, New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with Museum of American Folk Art, 1986, p. 153
Lipman, Jean, Robert Bishop, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Sharon L. Eisensrat. Five-Star Folk Art: One Hundred American Masterpieces. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with Museum of American Folk Art, 1990, p. 39
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, pp. 44-45, figs. 16A-B

Both have thin strips of black painted paper added to extreme borders which appear to be original to the work. Black borders with wear and black filled in in some small areas. Tiny areas of loss on extreme right edge in Mrs. Bickels's portrait; tiny "droplet" left side of his head. Corners glued down.
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The dazzling interior on display in these companion portraits belies the notion that Pennsylvania German culture was singularly insular. Based upon their dress and the home furnishings, the portraits of John and Caterina Bickel may have been executed as early as 1816. John Bickel was probably the son of John Bickel, a Revolutionary War soldier who applied for his pension in March 1833, when living in Jonestown.-S.C.H.